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Animals

Salmon-Eating Sea Lions Targeted For Their Taste

By NPR Staff

Each summer thousands of salmon can be seen shooting upstream at the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon and into Washington state. Sea lions congregate there. They think of the salmon migration as a buffet.

Sea lions are protected species, but salmon are endangered. Wildlife regulators don't want sea lions to gorge themselves on endangered salmon. For a time, the National Marine Fisheries Service was authorized to shoot any sea lion with a salmon dangling from its mouth. A bill has recently been introduced in Congress to allow the killing to start again.

The sea lions' salmon-eating habit was first noticed in the early part of the last decade, Oregon Public Broadcasting reporter Rob Manning tells Weekend Edition host Scott Simon. Manning, who has been following the story, says active removal of sea lions began in 2007 to protect the salmon.

"It was challenged in court by the Humane Society of the United States, and they ultimately won. So right now it's not entirely on sound legal footing for the federal government and the states of Oregon and Washington to continue removing and killing sea lions," Manning says.

They have tried methods besides killing, without always getting the desired results.

"They tried hazing, often using loud noises, sometimes things like fireworks, to scare them away from where the salmon are," he says. "But particularly with the hazing, there are sea lions who have come every year who know what the hazing is about, and they aren't scared by it anymore. So ... that isn't entirely successful either."

Commercial fisherman and others involved in the industry have also taken interest in the situation. Manning says fishing practices have been central to court arguments.

"The argument being, 'Well, there are fishermen out there catching a lot of salmon. Why should we let them do it and turn around and kill sea lions for consuming salmon?' " Manning says.

Considering the commercial or sport fishing industry and money from the federal and state governments used to protect salmon, he says, "there are millions, even billions, of dollars at stake."

"In the middle of all this are sea lions," Manning says," who are very publicly and obviously eating salmon, so it makes it a situation where certainly politicians want to take some action."